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The most common confusion I encounter when I talk cordials is that people think I am making a liqueur. The word “cordial” can mean several things, one of which is a liqueur, and another which basically means syrup. The syrup one is the focus of this article.

CORDIALS AND SYRUPS

Generally, I use the term “cordial” when the syrup is fruit/citrus juice based, (e.g. Lime Cordial) When it is an infused sugar and water base with little to no acidity, I generally use the term “syrup” (e.g. Ginger or Rosemary Syrup). But I often call the pineapple cordial a pineapple syrup. I have the same issue when talking about orgeat, horchata, and non-dairy creams.

PURPOSES AND BENEFITS

The primary purposes and benefits are providing the bartender and consumer with delicious, natural, quick and concentrated flavor vehicles for drinks and cocktails of all kinds. When you want lemon, you’ve got lemon. Appel’s Lemon Cordial is like liquid lemon oleosaccharum. It gives you the lemon aromas, flavor, sugar and acid that juice alone doesn’t. The same thing holds for Lime, Grapefruit and others.

Cordials aren’t meant to be a replacement for fresh juices, but, rather, compliment a fresh juice program and provide a ready made, non perishable workhorse ingredient that can be used in classic or improvised drinks on the fly behind a busy bar or at home.

Highballs made with club soda and spirit are perfect for cordials where a fresh juice may fall flat. It also gives the bartender/consumer the freedom to control the sweetness or intensity that you can’t expect from a packaged flavored soda The riffs are endless and easy once you realize their utility.

Another benefit is their long shelf life. High acid, high sugar, low water cordials are naturally resistant to spoilage (how sugar acts as a preservative) and thus you are able to make them far ahead of time for use when you need them. The original idea behind making these cordials was based on research my father, Gary, and I did on the preserved lime cordial that was used by the British Navy to stave off scurvy (Preserved Lime Juice Cordial and the Gimlet). Minus the sulfites used in Rose’s Lime Cordial, this is a natural means of preserving juices for future use and keeping waste to a minimum.

One more benefit is that they add concentrated flavor, aroma, sugar and acidity with no extra added water. This means you wont over dilute your cocktail and work perfectly in drinks that are naturally diluted (sodas and blender/frozen drinks).

They pack a lot of flavor in a small amount. They expand in your glass with the ice and spirits/soda diluting the cordial and the cordial modifying the spirits or soda. This concentrated, low water syrup also means they really shine when used in frozen drinks. They stand up beautifully to the ice required for blender drinks without watering them down, making the frozen drink that a straw stands up in. Non-alcoholic, frozen Lemon Slushies in the summer are outstanding… just add some gin or rum to make them into perfect boating drinks.

CASE COMPARISON

The Gin Gimlet

To make a perfect lime cordial based Gin Gimlet all you need is 2oz London Dry Gin and .5oz of homemade lime cordial, stirred or shaken, strained up or served on the rocks. This is an Americanized version and there are many valid versions of the Gimlet. But this is my favorite recipe in that it squarely emphasizes the gin with the lime cordial playing the only supporting role. They work beautifully together in this fashion.

This is a 4-1 ratio, but the lime packs a punch and really expands. The ice expands both the spirits and lime, and the spirits expand the lime. Easy and real. Perfectly balanced. Delicious.

The differences between a standard Gimlet made with fresh lime juice and simple syrup and one made with lime cordial are subtle and several.

In a fresh lime Gimlet the simple syrup, combined with lime juice, leaves a bigger liquid footprint in your drink. Even in small amounts like 1/2 oz lime and 1/2 oz simple, you now have a combined ingredient that is half your Gimlet. This changes the texture of the drink to one that can be refreshing and delicious, but one that I believe is more often imbalanced because of the lack of bartender attention to the simple syrup/lime juice ratio (Sugar Syrup In Cocktails) and by it taking up a larger portion of your drink. You could add more gin, but this then begins to get a a little unwieldy for most people. With a 2 oz gin pour, this often leads to the gin being overwhelmed by the mixers with the mixers too often starting out imbalanced in the first place. If you are using 1 oz of lime juice in a drink that only has 2 oz of spirit, with the addition of sugar to balance that much lime juice, in my opinion, your drink will be a mess. But balanced with a small amount of lime juice and rich simple (1/2 oz each), it is still a great drink. More like a gin daiquiri than what I think of as a gimlet, but delicious and refreshing.

Plain juice also doesn’t impart the natural lime oils derived from the lime zest that lime cordial does. One way around this and the use of juice/simple syrup in Gimlets is by pre-making fresh lime sour.

1 Part Fresh Lime Juice, Zest of Lime, 1 Part Cane Sugar

Mix until dissolved. This technique compacts your lime/sugar flavor vehicle while bypassing any added water. It also allows you to pour or jigger only the sour you need, rather than add juice and simple syrup in separate actions. It’s pre-balanced and ready to mix. If you want 3/4oz of mixer to the 2 oz of gin and do it separately, you need a minsicule .375oz each of simple and juice and this gets ludicrous to hand measure/jigger.

GIMLET (LIME CORDIAL)

2 oz London Dry Gin

1/2 oz Lime Cordial

Ice/Melt

GIMLET (FRESH LIME/SIMPLE)

2 oz London Dry Gin

1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice

1/2 oz Rich Simple Syrup (2-1)

Ice/Melt

GIMLET (FRESH LIME SOUR)

2 oz London Dry Gin

1/2-3/4 oz Fresh Lime Sour

CORDIALLY PRESERVED

ACID WATER SUGAR pH HEAT

Two Types of Cordial

Making lemon or lime cordial is straightforward since the acidity is more than able to balance the sugar needed. But when using sweeter fruit (e.g. grapefruit, pineapple, etc) as the base, we encounter a problem.

Sweeter citrus requires more acidity to balance the sugar needed for the preserving and the textural qualities of a good cordial. Using citric acid would be an easier and much cheaper way to increase the acidity, but I prefer an all juice base for my cordials. My preferred choice, then, is fresh lemon juice. Plain fresh lemon juice acts as a natural and neutral base acid mix for these kinds of cordials that are too sweet to accept the required amount of sugar.

Heat

Most of these cordials are slowly heated to a temperature of 180F. In my earlier trials making lime cordial I over heated the syrup by bringing it to a simmer and that had a detrimental effect on the flavor, aroma and color that I was looking for. Easing the cordial into this below-simmer level of heat is necessary for several reasons; concentrating the juice/sugar mixture into a syrup over time with some evaporation, keeping the colors and flavors vibrant without browning (maillard effect and caramelization) , aiding in anti-microbial effects by thermal process, aiding in creating the viscous texture desired by activating the natural pectin in the juices and dissolving the sugar with minimal inversion. The heat, sugar, acidity and low water content all add up to a very spoil resistant syrup.

Sugar Inversion

Inversion of sugar, in this case, is the breakdown of sucrose into glucose and fructose when it is mixed and heated in the acidic fruit juices used to make cordial. I prefer the clean mouth feel of sucrose over fructose, so I don’t want this to become honeylike. The use of fructose in the American soda market is one reason that Mexican Coca Cola has become so popular in the U.S. The data on taste differences is mostly anecdotal and the corn syrup industry denies any taste difference between sucrose and high fructose corn syrup, but I can easily tell and so can most other people. (Huffpost Taste Test) Fructose gives honey and agave nectar that palate coating effect (honey is up to 40% fructose and agave nectar can be up to 90% fructose!). It’s great in hot remedy drinks for sore throats, but that coating effect leaves a cloying, lingering and overly sweet taste that, I think, makes it unpalatable in most drinks that aren’t medicinal in purpose.

Any health issues surrounding sugars are beyond my expertise or the scope and point of this discussion, but my philosophy is that balance is not only a necessity in food and cocktails but also for body and soul.

No Water

No extra water is ever added to any cordial, except in the those where cranberries are used. Cranberries are high in acidity and pectin and need a little added water to bring out the juice and offset the thickening effects of the pectin. But, for the most part, the only liquid used in cordials are the base juice or the base juice and modifier (lemon juice). This keeps the percentages of acid and sugar at the level you want flavor-wise and also preservation-wise.

Evaporation is also a desired effect for further concentration. The slow heating means more time evaporating.

All of these things (time, real juice, heat, evaporation, etc.) add to the overall cost but also add to the quality and taste of your crafted cordials.

Note: the pectins, along with other super fine particulate matter that isn’t strained from the juices, will add a naturally colored opaqueness to your cordial that I actually find pleasing, not off putting. The cordials could be clarified and juice extraction increased by using a pectin enzyme, pectinase, that is used in brewing and wine making, or by using a centrifuge, or egg whites etc.., but, again, I prefer to be minimal and natural in these recipes so I do not use anything but fine, double straining.

I am not opposed to any of these techniques or additives, as long as they do not compromise the taste or texture of the final product.

Acidity and pH Level

The pH level of most of these cordials is generally just above 2, which means they are high acid syrups. Combined with the high percentage of sugar added to the juices/fruit, this makes a very difficult environment for bacteria to live in, let alone thrive in. Any problems would occur if these were lower and this is one reason why lemon juice is added to the sweeter juices so as to increase the sugar level while keeping the acidity levels high. The other reason is for balance, flavor and texture.

I imagine drinks off the Spanish Riviera…Seaside or by the pool… Perhaps on a yacht… Spain, grapes, wine and gin are the theme. Civilized and refined and not about self indulgence or self promotion. You don’t need to call attention to yourself, your confident style already does that naturally. You drink to please no one but yourself and you share your good taste with others around you.

I recently created this recipe for a local cocktail competition under a different name. Very simple in ingredients, but not simple on the palate.

Sliced Grape Garnish

There is nothing Earth shattering here ingredient-wise as one could view this as just a riff on a reverse style martini (2 parts Vermouth 1 Part Gin). But the addition of fresh grapes makes this familiar combination something entirely new. It is very refreshing and invites you to drink one after the other, yet not so boozy that you couldn’t make the attempt. The flavors are sweet with a bit of tartness. Tannin from the grape skins adds a very nice astringent quality that works well in balancing the sweetness. But the sweetness is not sugary or cloying at all. I originally thought I would want lemon or lime for the acid balance, but after I sipped the prototype without it, I never gave it another thought. I love this cocktail and have been making it all summer (2014)

It is also versatile and I really enjoy being able to improvise other drinks based on a theme. It can be served on the rocks, up in a cocktail glass as is or topped with sparkling wine, or served as a long drink with either soda or sparkling wine. It can be based with other aperitif wines, like Lillet, in place of vermouth. Pisco would be fantastic substituted for gin. It is easily batched for larger service.

(NOTE I didn’t cut the grapes for these photos, but it is easier to muddle this drink if you do cut the grapes in half first)

Muddled Grapes and Vermouth

Add gin and stir this mixture a bit before adding ice..

Add ice to fill mixing glass (if you dont have enough room, pour into the larger shaker tin or use a larger mixing glass or mixing pitcher).

You should have about half ice and half cocktail mix. Don’t cheat your cocktail on enough ice. You don’t want it just to melt, you want melt and chill. Use regular ice for mixing.

Ice and Cocktail

Stir this to chill and double strain (using the secondary strainer between mixing glass and rocks glass to catch any bits and pieces as you strain normally) into rocks glass filled with large ice cubes and sliced grapes interspersed. (Kold Draft Style Ice)*

The large ice cubes take up less room and melts more slowly and it shows off the grape slices better.

COSTA DORADA

Yes that big cube is a bit much for that glass…Kind of Flintstone-esque

* I long ago I realized it was futile trying to make my own clear ice, but luckily I have access to beautiful classic style cubes at markets here in Chicago (LANG CLASSIC ICE) It’s an ingredient that I can’t add value to by making myself nor is it worth investing in the equipment to make, so I let the pros make the ice for my cocktails.

In the summer I often make large batches of Bourbon-Peach lemonades for BBQ parties and almost always for the 4th of July. This fun drink was easily adapted and embellished into a slightly more refined punch service for that elegant outdoor summer BBQ picnic or soirée. Of course it will also work at any event you wish, even packing it into a cooler for a beach or pool party, so have at it!

NATCHEZ TRACE SUMMER PEACH PUNCH

15-20 servings

1/2 Liter Bourbon Whiskey

1/2 Liter VS Cognac

6 oz Orange Dry Curação or Triple Sec

6 oz Peach Liqueur

12 oz Unsweetened Hibiscus Flower and Orange Pekoe Tea

8 oz Lemon Cordial or Lemon Sour (recipes below)

750ml Fruity Rosé Wine Chilled

6 Large Ripe Juicy Peaches + 1 Peach for Punch Bowl

2 Lemons

Deconstructed Punch

CONCEPTS, RATIONALE AND INSPIRATION

The Story

To commemorate liberté, égalité, fraternité between France and the fledgling United States and in celebration of the Independence from the tyranny of British rule with the aid of our French friends and allies, I thought American Bourbon Whiskey along with Fine French Cognac Brandy would be a fine and natural alliance and the sturdy backbone to this wonderful summer punch.

This made me then remember the classic 1949 film, The Fighting Kentuckian, starring John Wayne as John Breen, the the leader of a band of Kentucky Militia making their way home after the Battle of New Orleans, circa 1816. The militia and John Breen get sidetracked in the assistance and defense of a group of French exiles and settlers in Alabama and by the beautiful Fleurette de Marchand. In the end, the bad guys are defeated, John Breen gets his fair maiden and Fleurette gets her Fighting Kentuckian and I imagine this would be the punch served at their nuptials and party. The blend of rough and tumble Kentucky back woodsman and cultured European aristocracy in alliance on the battle field and in love…and, of course, in the spirits of Kentucky and France.

And that brings us to The Natchez Trace. It was a 440 mile ancient and historical trail leading from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN and linking the Tennessee Valley with the Mississippi River in the south and was the gateway to the deep south, the gulf, and trade and exploration. I imagine Natchez Trace as a good part of the way back home for the Fighting Kentuckians, but it was the real highway for the many traders, Native Americans, and explorers of the day between the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The Punch

Whiskey and Cognac go together like John Breen and Fleurette de Marchand.

and

The substitution of lemon cordial in place of the stalwart of punches, the oleo sacharrum, adds part of the sweetness you will need for this punch, along with the wonderful lemon aromas you want that plain lemon juice is always missing. The cordial also adds the acidity and depth of lemon juice, much like a lemon sour, along with the aromatic benefits of the oleo. This then does the work of several ingredients in a natural and concentrated form.

The recipe for lemon cordial is in a previous article. It is a little bit of a process, but the ingredients are simple and it is well worth the effort since you can make a large amount and store it in the refrigerator with no degradation in taste or aroma and with a veritable unlimited shelf life.

The addition of a fruity summer wine adds length and body to the punch, filling in the cracks without the use of plain water.

The addition of unsweetened hibiscus tea adds a floral note and the extra needed acidity to balance the liqueurs.

The addition of peach liqueur adds sweetness along with a spirited peach flavor.

The addition of orange liqueur adds some more sweetness and plays a citrus supporting role for the lemon.

The addition of ripe peaches is all American and a staple of southern drinks and desserts. The natural stone fruit aromas, juice, flavor and appearance go with everything in this punch. There are peaches that will be macerated in Bourbon and Cognac and strained out and fresh sliced peaches added to the punch bowl.

Assorted antique glassware

For the Punch Service I like a large glass bowl, but I do not like the little cups. So I get oddball antique/second hand glassware from resale shops. They should be very inexpensive. Goblets, dessert glasses, ornate wine glasses, etc..All different sizes and shapes and colors. The look blows the little cups out of the water and is a ton more fun.

THE PROCESS

Decant the Bourbon and Cognac into a large glass jar or Cambro container, large enough to hold the spirits and peaches. Something similar will do as long as it can be sealed and is non-reactive.

Small dice 6 fresh peaches and add to the container of spirits. Add the orange and peach liqueurs to the container. Allow to rest for 2 to 4 hours or overnight is even better the night before. Agitate the container from time to time.

After the peaches are done macerating in the spirits, strain the spirits off and place spirits in container in the refrigerator or on ice in a cooler until chilled and needed. Save the macerated peaches to add to punch goblets or snack on later. Do not throw them away!

While the peaches are macerating, make the hibiscus tea. Add 1.5 oz of dried hibiscus flowers and 4 orange pekoe tea bags to 20 oz of hot water and steep for 10-15 minutes. Strain this and allow to cool and chill in refrigerator until needed. This will be more than needed for the punch but extra is good to have if you want to add more or use in a lemonade.

Dried Hibiscus Flowers

Lemon cordial should already be made, but if you haven’t had a chance to make it, the following is a quick sour version that will work perfectly.

EXTRA LEMONY SOUR

8 oz Fresh Strained Lemon Juice

8 oz Cane Sugar

Lemon Peel from Lemons to be juiced

Wash and zest/peel the lemons and set the lemons aside.

Fine chop the lemon peel and set aside.

Slice and juice the lemons.

Strain the juice.

In a non-reactive bowl, add juice and sugar and mix until the sugar has dissolved. This take a bit of stirring, but it will dissolve.

Add the lemon peel to the lemon sour mix and cover. Glass mason jars work great for this. Chill in refrigerator until needed.

Strain the lemon peel when needed.

This can be made the night before.

This will make approximately 12 oz of sour mix. To make more just use the 1-1 ratio for the sour and increase. This is the perfect base for making fresh lemonade for your party as well, so make more than you need for the punch and make some lemonade for those who don’t imbibe or are just thirsty.

-Idea-

Add any unused hibiscus tea to the lemonade

Peaches, Lemons and Hibiscus

Building The Punch

If possible have all the ingredients already chilled before building the punch. Wine, spirits, cordial/sour, tea.

I suggest getting a block of ice that can be chipped into large chunks for the punch. If not available, large clear cubed ice works best. You want large pieces that don’t melt too fast, but do melt. Too small and they melt too fast. Too large a block and it just sits there not melting and not chilling.

Slice thin lemon wheels and set aside. Thin slice chilled peaches any way you wish to be added to the punch and set aside.

Add the large chunks of ice to the punch bowl to begin chilling the bowl and melt off a little bit. In another container large enough for the punch, add all the spirits, tea, cordial/sour and wine and mix together. Taste for consistency and adjust for your taste if necessary.

Pour this over the ice in the bowl and stir lightly to even the temperature. Float the lemon and peaches on the punch.

This is the lemon version of the original LIME CORDIAL recipe I did a while back. It is really similar to an oleo saccharum in that you are rendering the natural lemon oils, flavor and aroma of your lemons by steeping the peel in sugar…only with this version you are also using the juice. It is like a cross between and lemon sour and an oleo saccharum. I find it more useful than an oleo and can be stored in the refrigerator almost indefinitely for future use. It is a concentrated ball of flavor and aroma so a little goes a long way in your cocktail, long drink, iced tea or club soda and many other beverages.

In this recipe let’s use enough lemons to make about a quart of LEMON CORDIAL. That should be about 25 nice lemons and about 2/3 of a quart of strained juice. In any case, whatever juice you get from your lemons, the recipe in parts above is still valid. If you get 25 oz of juice, then measure 25 oz of cane sugar. I am giving the parts measured by volume for ease at home. Measured by weight it isn’t exactly 1-1, but that is another subject. Also, you can make this sweeter or more tart for your taste or purpose by varying the sugar used. Less sugar for more tart and more sugar for sweeter.

STEP ONE

Wash the lemons under warm water to remove any dirt and chemicals left from harvest and shipping. Dry the lemons with a cloth. This helps prevent degradation of your lemon peel by any excess water. You want just the yellow part containing the essential oils so use a good zester. I love the Kühn-Rikon Swiss Peeler.

STEP TWO

Peel/zest your lemons. Using your peeler just get the yellow part of the zest in long swaths lengthwise along the lemon. It really doesn’t matter what the peel look like or which way you peel them as long as you just get mostly yellow.

STEP THREE

Cut and juice your peeled lemons. Strain pulp from juice. You are ready to mix in the sugar now.

STEP FOUR

Mixing the Lemon Juice and Sugar.

Equal parts. In a non-reactive sauce pan that is large enough for both sugar and lemon juice, add both. Make sure the pan is the appropriate size for the amount you are making. Stir this mixture until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Put the pan on to a low/medium heat on stove top. Slowly bring the heat up. Use a thermometer to make sure you don’t heat it too fast or too high. We want this to be clean and lemony tasting, not caramelized. Do not bring to a boil. The temperature I bring this to is 175. Once you hit this temp turn off heat and remove from burner. Pour this into a non-reactive container. Cambros work great here but glass or ceramic works too. Regular plastic wont take the heat well.

STEP FIVE

Adding The Lemon Peel

Once you have your basic lemon syrup in your container, allow to cool off at room temp uncovered. When cooled, add your lemon zest and stir into the cordial. Cover this now and store in your refrigerator. Allow this to rest overnight if possible or a minimum of 2 hours or until cooled to fridge temp.

STEP SIX

Stir and strain your lemon cordial.

Take your cordial out of the fridge and stir one more time and then fine strain the cordial and store in glass jars or bottles or some non-reactive container.

The ingredients in this wonderful mixer couldn’t be simpler. It is a bit of a process making this, but well worth the effort since it is a way of preserving this sour/oleo cross for many future uses and doesnt have to be made each time you need it. It is also a wonderful way to preserve lemon juice and the lemon oils and essence. This is a high sugar, low water (there is no water added) and high acid product that is heated so it is a nearly impossible place for any bacteria to grow.

Irish Coffee seems simple enough; glass mug, Irish Whiskey, hot coffee, sugar, whipped cream, right? Well, let’s say close. But after making one with these ingredients you may enjoy it, but wonder why it isn’t quite what you expected or that it isn’t even all that special. A closer look at the details of this recipe and you will understand how a few simple tweaks to this recipe will make it into something special.

The most important part of this drink is the ‘whipped’ cream float on the coffee. The rest is as easy as quality medium roasted coffee that won’t overwhelm the Irish Whiskey that you are using, yet will have the backbone for some added sugar…and compliment a fine cream topping.

There are many recipes and opinions for making Irish Coffee, but the usual points of contention and confusion come with the coffee cream topping. Canned whipped cream with some green mint syrup just doesn’t cut it anymore for a proper Irish Coffee made at home or in a quality bar or pub. Even a solid whipped cream from scratch, while better than from the can, does not quite give me what I want on top of an Irish Coffee.

Instinct, taste and experience points in a slightly different direction than whipped heavy cream. To me, the Irish Coffee cream should be more like an airy double cream. Thick but not fluffy. Heavy, yet still light enough to float. Slightly pourable. A little funky in a rustic way, yet retaining the youth of a fresh, sweet cream.

The public is starting to become aware of the many dairy products and styles from around the world and one very important style is the thicker, high fat double creams from Ireland and England. Hard to find in the States, but a very important part of making a good Irish Coffee cream.

Double cream is much higher in butterfat than heavy cream by definition. (Minimum fat levels for Double Cream are 45-48% compared to American Heavy or Whipping Cream at 35-36%) The best creams, heavy or double, are an egg shell white like color with an almost cheesy, buttery aroma. An example comparison is American grade A unsalted butter and European style butter. European butter is lightly cultured to give it more depth and complexity. (European Style Butter)

When I was a kid in northern Minnesota, we lived by a dairy farm and always had unpasteurized fresh milk from the dairy farm up the road. We would fill gallon jars with fresh milk. It was real whole milk so the cream rose to the top and was about at least a 1/4 of the entire content of the jar. We would either shake it up and drink it that way (serious milk mustaches!) or siphon the cream off and use it for whipped cream, over fresh berries or make butter with it. It was very thick and not like what you get in the grocery store. It was pure cream and I suspect was more like a double cream.

But it’s very difficult to find a double cream in the US so what can one do to get the consistency, taste and aroma that you want from using common American style heavy cream? I thought I would try making a crème fraîche, add some sugar and vanilla, and then whip it up a bit before it became too solidified. My thought was that this would provide the slightly cultured aroma and taste that I was looking for and be the pourable, slightly sweet floating cream needed for topping your Irish Coffee….and it was.

We never made crème fraîche back when I was a kid or even heard of it. But, when I did learn about it, it seemed very familiar and natural to me since it had those blends of aromas and flavors that were part of my memory.

At first this may seem like too much trouble to go through, but it is ridiculously easy to make and a cool skill/knowledge to have and has many other uses in the kitchen. The most important part of making this crème fraîche at home is that you can customize the process so it is perfect for an Irish Coffee cream.

The recipe consists of heavy cream with a touch of buttermilk as the culture starter. This is then allowed to sit at room temperature for a day. You can get even deeper into the details of this process by finding more natural, locally produced milk/cream and cultures but those will take a trip to the country and a local dairy farm or ordering cultures. But the following recipe is as far as we need to go for this trip.

LIGHT CRÈME FRAÎCHE FOR IRISH COFFEE CREAM

12 oz Heavy Cream

1 oz Buttermilk

16 oz Glass or Ceramic Jar

2 oz Rich 2-1 Simple Syrup or to taste

1/4 tsp High Quality Vanilla Extract or to taste

________________________________________________________________

THE PROCESS

In a non-reactive mixing bowl add the buttermilk and heavy cream and whip with a wire whisk.

Add this to a jar and cover it, but don’t seal it. It needs to breathe a bit. I usually just put the lid on the jar but don’t tighten it.

Let this sit for approximately 8-12 hours. Make it in the morning for evening service. Check it for consistency from time to time to see how quickly it is thickening.

When it is thick and coats a spoon, it is ready to add a touch of sweetness. In this recipe I use a rich simple syrup instead of powdered or granulated sugar. It mixes much more easily. I like to use refined cane sugar for the cream to avoid adding any other flavors I might be getting from the coffee. The cream and coffee should be compliments, not redundancies.

It is important that the cream isn’t noticeably sweet like normal whipped cream. It definitely needs a touch of sweetness for dimension, but there will be sugar in the coffee and whiskey so the cream will be a cool balance to the hot, sweeter and earthy coffee and whiskey combination.

In a non-reactive bowl, add cream, simple syrup and vanilla. Beat by hand with a wire whisk to add some air. You could also just add the syrup and vanilla to the jar already containing the crème fraîche, tighten the lid and shake it until you have a slightly airier whipped consistency. Taste for sweetness and texture. Adjust to your palate if desired. Store in refrigerator.

For the Irish Coffee I prefer a robust coffee, but not so robust that it overwhelms the whiskey and other flavors. I do like an unrefined or raw sugar in the coffee at this point which will add natural depth and aged tastes. Demerara sugar or Azucar Morena are both readily available. Make a 2-1 syrup for this recipe.

IRISH COFFEE

1.5 oz Irish Whiskey

Hot Medium-Dark Roast Coffee

1-2 Tsp Rich Unrefined Sugar Syrup or to Taste

Irish Coffee Cream

8oz Coffee Drink Mug

Piping Hot Water

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THE PROCESS

Before making your Irish Coffee, add piping hot water to your 8 oz coffee drink mugs and let rest while you get ready to pour. You can use whatever sized mug you like and adjust ratios accordingly, but 8 oz is a good place to start. The hot water will help keep your mug hot before and after serving. Use glass mugs so you can show off the coffee and the cream.

When ready to serve, dump the hot water. Add Irish Whiskey and demerara syrup. Top with coffee, leaving room for cream. About 1/4 of the mug should be free at the top. Use a spoon and, holding it just touching the coffee, gently pour the cream onto the spoon allowing the cream to float over and then onto the surface of the coffee. Fill to the rim.

Your Irish Coffee is ready to serve. No extra garnishes or straws/stirrers are necessary. Each sip should give you part cream and part whiskey/coffee in your mouth which should make you happy.

If you do wish a garnish of some type, I recommend a light dusting of grated cinnamon or ground cocoa nibs on top of the cream. You could also use pure maple syrup or even a liqueur in place of the sugar syrup in the coffee. The herbal base of Benedictine or Drambuie would make them great complimentary additions to a jazzed up Irish Coffee.

Several years ago I decided to try my hand at making an Irish Cream in my kitchen. A little research showed, to my surprise, that Irish Cream is really something invented purely for marketing in the 70’s…the 1970’s. So there were no 18th century classic Irish recipes to be found…or that I could find. There are, however a plethora of modern day home recipes that are available online. Marketing invention or not, Irish Cream appears like a genuinely good idea and also seems like something that would be a prime candidate for the value added by making it yourself at home.

A PLETHORA OF HOME RECIPES

I generally search through books and the web for as many recipes as I can when learning something new. I filter out the ones that I feel are nonsensical and then compile a list of common denominators of them all. I then use my best judgment to come up with a prototype recipe to go to kitchen with. Most of the recipes I found for Irish Cream seemed to amount to glorified chocolate milk and didn’t make me think value added. Most recipes rarely used egg as an emulsifier, more often relying on things like evaporated or sweetened condensed milk to gather viscosity. Most rarely used heat.

The most common base flavors incorporated into the home recipes that I found included chocolate, vanilla, coffee, almond and cinnamon. Many of the recipes relied heavily on either coffee or chocolate or both as the dominant flavor and many also used things like cinnamon and almond which I like, but don’t feel are present in Irish Cream. Most recipes seemed to lack subtlety in the base flavors, thus creating more of a chocolate cream or coffee cream.

The history of Irish Cream and Bailey’s is very sketchy and little doubt glossed over or kept in the closet, so to speak, by its marketers. A long storied history is what is implied by the name and the marketing. Nonetheless, it is a delicious and simple idea.

Bailey’s Irish Cream was brought to market in 1974 by Gilbey’s of Ireland. There was no R. A. Bailey behind the name. Wikipedia asserts that the name was inspired by the Bailey Hotel in London, others hold it was just an easy and identifiable Irish name used purely for marketing. In any case, it was an instant and enormous hit and remains so today inspiring other competitors as well as new flavors.

The Bailey’s website says their recipe contains fresh dairy cream, a triple pot distilled whiskey blend, a proprietary blend of natural cocoa extracts and a blend of cane and beet sugars. Bailey’s states that it does not contain eggs. No other ingredients are listed but Wikipedia says in it’s listing that other ingredients “…include herbs and sugar.” That is the wild card that seems to be the point where many decide to throw in cinnamon, almond and coffee. The coffee seems to also be related to more hearsay that Gilbey’s came up with Bailey’s Irish Cream in an attempt to use up surplus whiskey by making a bottled Irish Coffee. (Homedistillation). Coffee and chocolate seem to be goes at this point.

The Carolan’s Irish Cream website says its base uses fresh cream, honey, water, stabilizers and natural colors that are combined in stainless steel tanks and heated at high temperatures. They don’t mention coffee or chocolate/cocoa or vanilla as flavoring agents, just honey. Their spirit base is whiskey and unspecified ‘spirit’ that I can only assume is neutral grain spirit. They describe the taste of Carolan’s as “Vanilla ﬂavour with a smooth texture. Creamy taste, accented with the burnished gold of aged spirits and wildﬂowers honey.” A big description that doesn’t really say much. Other than the cream, I am not sure what is in this and am not interested in using honey in this recipe. Zero from them.

PUTTING TOGETHER A RECIPE

One key necessity to making a homemade cream or cream liqueur, that is often overlooked, is a binding agent or emulsifier or emulsifying process to keep the cream liqueur from separating in storage. Egg yolks are commonly used in the home as emulsifiers in things like mayonnaise, custards, pastry creams and egg nogs. Artificial and natural stabilizers (slightly different from emulsifiers) like pectin, guar gum, agar, gelatin etc. are often used either at home or by manufacturers to help in this process. Other methods not readily available in the home are the use of high pressure heating or some other unspecified proprietary method of homogenization, are the most common ways to bind ingredients together. The manufacturing of cream liqueurs generally employs the industrial method of high pressure and heat.

Since the high pressure heat method is not readily duplicated at home, I decided to use the traditional egg yolk based, or pastry cream, method of emulsification that I also use for making a Mexican style rum egg nog called Rompope and a Puerto Rican coconut cream liqueur called Coquito.

Essentially this is making a flavored pastry cream and then halting the process (so it doesn’t become too thick to drink) straining and cooling the cream and finally adding a base spirit. The Irish Coffee story seemed plausible so I decided to incorporate coffee into the recipe. Chocolate was a given. I also wanted to add some vanilla. To me, vanilla is essential to the base of any cream. All these had to be blended subtly so as not to overwhelm any other flavor.

Slowly heat the milk, sugar, coffee, vanilla, and cocoa nibs. Bring to a very low near-simmer for approximately 10 minutes to bring out the nibs and coffee. Stir frequently.

In a non-reactive mixing bowl add the egg yolks and whisk together.

When the milk mixture is ready, remove from heat and strain into an appropriately sized mixing bowl. This will be used immediately in the egg yolks.

Now slowly pour and whisk this hot milk mixture into the egg yolks a little bit at a time. It’s good to have an assistant at this stage. Doing this slowly and in parts will ensure that the eggs do not curdle from the heat. Keep doing this…always whisking…until all the milk is incorporated.

Now return the milk and egg mixture to a clean saucepan on low heat and whisk/stir continuously until it begins to thicken. Continue until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Fine strain this again and store in an appropriately sized container that can be covered and cooled off in a refrigerator. The fine straining at this point will remove any bits of egg or milk that may have congealed.

When the cream is cool, it should be thick like an Alfredo sauce. Add whiskey and stir or shake. Taste and adjust as you see fit.

It is now ready for sharing, drinking or storage in the fridge. Shelf life is several months, but if it tastes as good as it should, it won’t last that long.

Feel free to add more or less sugar depending on how sweet you want your Irish Cream. This can be non-alcoholic but it should then be used within a week or turn it into ice cream..

Once you know this base method of making a cream liqueur, you can be branch off and try many other flavors; coconut, hazelnut, cinnamon, almond and so on. Also the choice of base spirit can be almost endless. Rum, Tequila Añejo, Bourbon, sweet chocolaty Amaros, Cognacs and brandies, etc..

If you have any questions, please reach out to me, I would be glad to help you through this recipe or answer any questions about drinks and drink making .

There is something that has bothered me since I began bartending 12 years ago and that is the typically unquestioned use of the champagne flute for most sparkling wine and champagne cocktails.

During the cocktail dark ages (70’s-80’s) champagne was still often being sipped from a coupe, even if it was made of plastic, and champagne cocktails were something that Cary Grant drank in the 40’s-50’s…but he and everyone else generally drank them out of coupes or other cocktail glasses. The champagne and sparkling cocktail made a big comeback with the cocktail revolution 20 years later, but somehow the coupe got left behind.

Wine had it’s renaissance in the US around the time of the cocktail dark ages and flutes rapidly took the place of coupes for sipping your bubbles, even if they were plastic. It made more sense to drink sparkling wines from something that would keep those bubbles from dissipating quickly and direct those wonderful aromas to your nose. The aesthetics of either glass for sparkling are a matter of personal taste, but flutes did allow the bubbles to put on a long show up the glass to freedom.

But even the flute is now falling out of favor for sipping champagne as a new wave of knowledgeable oenophiles abandon the flute for the even more bubbles friendly, yet aesthetic, tulip style glass.

All of this is great for enjoying sparkling wines, but what about sparkling wine cocktails? It seems that most of the cocktail revolutionaries that helped stoke the cocktail renaissance just opted for the flute when making champagne cocktails as it was de rigueur and those revolutionaries were just getting on their feet. It seemed appropriate. This isn’t to say that they are never made in coupes or other glassware, but the trend and go-to glass was, and still is, the flute for the bulk champagne/sparkling wine cocktails. Doing a quick search for champagne or other sparkling wine cocktails, one sees that most tend to be photographed in flutes. Every bar but one that I have worked in that served all sparkling cocktails served them in flutes.

Before we get into the discussion on glassware I would like to loosely define a few things.

What is a champagne cocktail? For the purposes of this discussion and to avoid confusion at this point, I would like to define a ‘champagne cocktail’ as any drink that includes champagne or sparkling wine as an ingredient or the base ingredient of a more complex mixture. The true and narrow definition of the named drink, Champagne Cocktail, is that it is a like a strict cocktail (sugar, bitters, spirit) with champagne filling in for the spirits. Yes, some add brandy as well as champagne.

Coupe

Some commonly known Sparkling Wine/Champagne cocktails

BELLINI

MIMOSA

CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL

FRENCH 75

KIR ROYALE

Goblet

There are hundreds more and they keep coming as many talented mixologists keep creating riffs and new cocktails made with sparkling wine. Sparkling wines are also often used in punches. Sparkling wines can be used as a luxury replacement for sodas in many drinks. It is a great way to stretch out a cocktail and or lighten it up. The acidity of a brut or dry champagne can be used to balance any extra sweetness of sugars in syrups, juices and liqueurs. It certainly has no limits to it’s use in cocktails except what I see as the generally limited functionality of the flute.

Now why would the flute be better for champagne but not necessarily better for cocktails?

Let’s start with the accepted reasons it is better for champagne.

A fluted glass focuses bubbles and aroma to your nose. Those aromas are part of the experience and pleasure of a well made sparkling wine. The flute is narrow so it focuses those bubbles to your nose and palate and also, since it is narrow, won’t diffuse those bubbles and get flat quite as fast in a room temp glass. Like wine glassware, they aren’t meant to be filled to, or close to, the rim allowing for the aromas to gather in the upper part of the glass. About 3/4 or 3/5 full is about right for a proper pour of sparkling wine.

Those two reasons are the biggest for using flutes over coupes for sparkling wine. Other reasons are the aesthetics of the bubbles flowing up the glass to the top..it does look elegant.

But for cocktails and other drinks that use sparkling wine, in my opinion, coupes and other similar cocktail glassware fare much better than flutes in aesthetics as well as functionality. The champagne cocktail also opens the door to using other styles of glassware. Collins and other long drink glasses, large rocks or double old fashioneds, wine glasses and goblets can be wonderful when making a champagne/sparkling cocktail. Once sparkling wine begins to mix, it can be free to extend it’s realm to all kinds of glassware appropriate for each mixture and flutes are not made to contain ice.

COUPES vs FLUTES

Coupes were and are used for cocktails today as well as for cocktails and champagne during the classical period of mixology leading up to prohibition and during prohibition in Europe. They are better suited for champagne cocktails than for champagne for several reasons.

In lieu of unlimited refrigeration space, coupes and other cocktail glassware can be pre-chilled with ice much more easily, and thus faster, than flutes. Flute are generally not, if ever, chilled in most bars and restaurants since they are often doing double duty for cocktails and champagne service as well as part of the refrigeration space concern mentioned above. Flutes should not be chilled for wine service, but should be for cocktail service.

The coupe offers a larger surface for the number of complementary added aromas that are generally present in cocktails. Champagne aromas can often be much more subtle and thus require the narrow mouth of the tulip or flute to collect them. Cocktail aromas often need more space to work with that champagne just won’t stand up in.

The coupe offers easier accessibility and space for the bartender to work with, also making it faster and easier to make and mix drinks in them.

The tall narrow nature of the flute often requires more manipulation with a spoon or other tool to mix properly. Over manipulation and stirring is also an enemy of bubbles. Even worse is the light shake or rolling to mix carbonated drinks I often see in many bars.

Coupes drain in a more aesthetically pleasing way. By that I mean when a Mimosa is half drunk, it leaves orange matter from the bubbles along the inside of the long iceless glass. This generally happens when fruit, juice and sugars are mixed with sparkling wine.

The flute is not a very stable glass to mix in or work with in a busy bar.

A coupe is also arguably easier to drink cocktails from. When sipping from a flute you must cock your head back the more the flute becomes drained. This is greatly diminished with a shallow glass like the coupe and better for drinking cocktails.

HEAT IS THE ENEMY OF THE BUBBLE

Since a coupe is easier to chill (in lieu of unlimited glassware refrigeration most bars and homes don’t have), using a coupe makes more functional sense. Chilling the glass before pouring anything straight up into it helps diminish the loss of carbonation for sparkling drinks and also assists in maintaining the chill of any drink served up. This helps sustain that effervescence because the more a liquid warms or is warm, the more it wants to expand. That means pouring cold bubbles into warm glasses of any kind makes those bubbles fly away faster upon impact. Chilling your glass and anything that goes into your glass makes an enormous difference to any drink that uses sodas or sparkling wines.

When one adds carbonated things to non-carbonated things or vice versa, the result is immediately diminished carbonation regardless of the chill factors mentioned above.

This means there are a many things at work against the carbonation of your drink. Some we can diminish and some we cannot, so it is imperative to attend to those few details that can help your cocktail be at it’s best. The coupe and other glassware can really have the advantage over a flute in these cases.

EVERYBODY MUST GET CHILLED

CHILL YOUR BASE

Chilling the base ingredients with a quick stir over ice before adding them to any glass to be topped with bubbles is a very important, yet overlooked, step in keeping your sparkling cocktail, sparkling.

CHILL YOUR SPARKLING

Make sure your carbonated ingredients are well chilled beforehand as well. That means your Prosecco, club soda, 7 Up, Ginger Beer, tonic etc…As explained above, warm soda falls flat fast, is difficult to work with and also stresses your ice. Having a flat and weak Gin and Tonic with already worn out ice floating to the top may as well have the nasty brown lime from the garnish tray thrown on it to finish the effect.

CHILL YOUR GLASS

Your coupe or cocktail glass must be chilled. Just fill with ice along with a little water and let it sit while you go ahead and mix your drink. Generally the glass is chilled enough by the time you have your drink mixed and are ready to pour it. Dump the ice water. A couple of quick shakes of the coupe or cocktail glass will remove most of the remaining drops.

Double Old Fashioned

Highball

NOT ONLY COUPES…

While I sing the praises of the coupe over the flute for champagne cocktails without ice, I also love using other styles of glassware. Tall glasses for sparkling long drinks, large sized rocks glasses, wine goblets and glasses. A Mimosa served in a tall glass on ice is delicious, cold, and wonderful looking. It also gives you the space to add the non-alcoholic mixers and garnishes, while still having room for the champagne to make a drink that fits in it’s space and won’t be drained in 3 seconds flat, or be flat in 3 seconds flat. These are also the perfect style drink to use large cubed ice. The large ice melts slowly and takes up less space, while maintaining the chill and carbonation you want down to the last sip.

This is the time when calling your cocktails ‘coolers’ and ‘spritzers’ may seem more appropriate. The Aperol Spritz is getting fantastically popular now, to the point of marginalization, but really is a delicious, fun, beautiful, low alcohol drink and style. Perfect for making in a chilled coupe, or over ice in a tall glass or wine glass with a slice of orange and/or a splash or fresh orange or grapefruit juice. I cannot think of a sparkling wine cocktail that seems completely inappropriate served on ice in any of these glasses, with the possible exception of the classic Champagne Cocktail.

I love glassware and choosing the proper one is very important to the function, as well as form, of all your drinks and cocktails.

Here is an updated version of a cocktail I did in 2013. I substituted Prosecco for Club Soda

PORTOFINO

2 oz BEEFEATER 24

.5 oz COCCI AMERICANO

.5 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Grapefruit Juice

Chilled Prosecco

Grapefruit Peel

16 oz Highball

Large Format Ice

Chill the gin, Cocci Americano and juices in a mixing glass. Strain into 16oz highball filled with large ice (eg. kold draft). Top with Prosecco. 1 or 2 gentle turns dragging from bottom of glass to top with bar spoon to mix the top and bottom. Express your grapefruit peel over the top, add to drink and add a long straw.

The dryness/acidity of the Prosecco may require the deletion or diminution of the lime juice.

Riffs can include different styles of sparkling wine, gin and amaros/bitters. I suggest Aperol or Campari for the Cocci as wonderful alternatives. Adjust for sweetness.